<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Triumvirate by Starcruiserc</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048646">The Triumvirate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcruiserc/pseuds/Starcruiserc'>Starcruiserc</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study?, I Tried, I can't do tags, I think?, Jonathan needs a nap, M/M, Multi, They all need a nap, Tim is a Sad Boi, Tim needs a nap, Unreliable Narrator, please be kind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:41:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,006</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048646</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starcruiserc/pseuds/Starcruiserc</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Family is something Tim holds very dear, his brother was what kept him going for so long, and now that the Unknowing has been thwarted, he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. Even before he lived and subsequently died for Danny, his parents shaped his life by forcing comparisons and activities, regardless of his wishes and whims. This new chance in the world of the living comes with a feeling of purpose, a need to fulfill the destiny presented to him. However, it's difficult to focus on his reality when there isn't anything for him to cling to. </p><p>Or: Tim realizes that he needs Anchors because slipping away into Terminus is a big no-no</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jonathan Sims/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims/Tim Stoker, Martin Blackwood/Tim Stoker</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Tim Stoker Appreciation Week</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Triumvirate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Family is something Tim holds very dear, his brother was what kept him going for so long, and now that the Unknowing has been thwarted, he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. Even before he lived and subsequently died for Danny, his parents shaped his life by forcing comparisons and activities, regardless of his wishes and whims. This new chance in the world of the living comes with a feeling of purpose, a need to fulfill the destiny presented to him. However, it's difficult to focus on his reality when there isn't anything for him to cling to. </p><p>He would have latched upon Martin, but the oppressively polite man keeps pushing him away, making excuses about being too busy to go for drinks, having an appointment whenever Tim tries to make small talk and managing to somehow evade him, even when Tim tries to follow the narrative of Martin's life. Then there's the issue of Peter Lukas, the man constantly manipulates the Archives to isolate everyone, and seems to have taken a particular interest in Martin, meaning that the aforementioned manipulations are tenfold in respect to the increasingly elusive man. Tim contents himself in the knowledge that Lukas will soon meet his end, though he can't quite see how it will happen, a mist obscuring the details.</p><p>Jon would be a prime candidate as well if he wasn't in a coma. Tim knows he isn't dead, but seeing him lying there, unmoving and unbreathing almost makes him question that. He wonders what he's dreaming about, seeing as that's all Jon seems capable of at the moment with his brain lit up with the only life in the room. Tim spends more time than he probably should sitting at Jon's bedside, talking to him, unshed tears just behind his eyes, questioning why the two people he has left are so close and so far away.</p><p>Georgie often joins him in his vigil, and although he feels a kinship with her, he knows she doesn't trust him further than she could throw him. Given that he's not the lightest person, she's not exactly an option. She does make good company though, sharing stories of Jon in uni, and always being willing to ignore a tear or two, and to leave the room if he needs some time alone with Jon. What really seems to bring them together is how protective she appears to be of their charge, he is quite familiar with the devotion of Philia. Push comes to shove, he can trust her to have Jon's best interests at heart, nothing more, nothing less.</p><p>When Tim feels a presence he doesn't recognize in Jon's room one day, he tries to read their life as he rushes to the hospital. What he sees is confusing, a single still image of a blazing ball of fire slamming into the ocean. It haunts him every time he closes his eyes as wheels screech and traffic laws weep. After a few minutes on the road the presence fades, and all he can feel is Georgie and Jon, though Jon's story becomes clearer and clearer every moment. When Tim arrives, he's greeted by the Archivist, and something fundamentally changes. It's not Jon, not how Tim remembers, and that breaks him. Tim falls away, all that is left is the Affiant.</p><p>Time passes, and a relationship forms between the Affiant and the Archivist, both realizing that things aren't quite how they were before the Unknowing. The Affiant doesn't realize it at first, but their shared experience brings them closer together than they had been, and he begins to see Jon in the Archivist, little fragments of the man he used to know. Mirroring Jon's return, Tim starts to resurface as well, though it is clear neither is the same. Days turn to weeks, and weeks to months the two of them ground each other, and together they work to reach out to Martin.</p><p>Martin was always a tough nut for Tim to crack, and that hasn't changed since Peter turned him into Brumetread, and he became lost in the mists. Everything comes to a head when Jon confronts Lukas in the Panopticon, following him and Brumetread into the Lonely. Tim waits for them to return, feels Jon tug on their connection to find their way back, and feels Brumetread tied into him as well. The three of them walk back to the Archives in each other's arms, with mist swirling around them almost hungrily. None wish to leave the others for the night and they stay in the Archives silent and sleepless.</p><p>The next day is one of conversation and rest, discussing what they are to each other, communicating what they all need, and taking special care to make Martin feel seen as pieces of him resurface from Brumetread. They rent a cabin far away from the Archives, deciding that they need a break from all that just happened. On the trip, they share in their trauma, letting Jon see them, Tim to read their stories, and for Martin to wipe away the Lonely's grip from them.</p><p>Tim comes to focus in the cabin, his mind clearing fully in slow waves of lucidity. The past months have been a blur, details hopelessly lost to him. He wonders what had changed, what could have brought him back from the instinctual drive which kept him going. After a day or two of thought, reveling in the novel control of his own mind, an answer comes to him. Jon had mentioned something about anchors to him once, how Avatars need something to keep them human. Before the Archivist awoke Jon's memory and the vigil were acceptable substitutes, though losing them set Tim back. The Affiant and the Archivist supported each other, though much as two sticks aren't able to stand alone Jon and Tim couldn't bring each other back fully. Once a third had been found, stability quickly followed. </p><p>No man may be an island, but three Avatars are more than capable of staying afloat.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>